Where the heck are the oncologists in this matter??? It's not rocket science.

catbell7

08/30/14

when I had my HA (at home) and a neighbor with a suspended driver's license
drove me to the ER - and of course as we pulled in front of the door my pain
disappeared (which was like heartburn/indigestion and I had never had that
in my life until about 18 months prior during which I paid a guy and his friend
to load a moving truck 20 footer from SF to MS -- having 'heartburn/ingestion'
a couple of times a day -- stopping usually at night since the truck had bucket
seats and not a bench seat -- I had planned on sleeping in the cab of the
truck and showering at true truck stops
well after the CABGx3 I had some depression the doc offered some
antidepressant but a friend brought me some L-theanine I had in a basket and
it is amazing for depression - even my cardio doc and gp doc was amazed and
will remember that one - oh and she also said omega 3 fish oils 3K per day
and I told her I eat up 5 K per day - along with oil of oregano for upper
respiratory (amazing good stuff), probiatic 15-35 (which will kill off
psoriasis/ezema w/no side effects, so I would tell anyone to give L-theanine
aka theanine (used in UK for depression first).

Roy Clark MD FACP DLFAPA

08/30/14

"It's not rocket science" but treating depression in patients with cancer, and any
serious medical condition, is more likely to be treatment resistant - 20-40% in
most studies. Better that oncologists focus on their area of expertise and
request psychiatric consultation.
For a brief introduction to Scientific Methods in Medicine go to:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1272409/
When investigating the impact of any factor in scientific, evidence-based medical
studies, reliance is primarily given to objective physical or clinical findings that
are independent of voluntary action and can be seen, felt or consistently
measured by examiners. Pain is not such an objective finding.
Andrew raises, again, issues associated with The Independent Payment Advisory
Board.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1005402.

Alene Nitzky Ph.D RN OCN

08/30/14

There are so many things left out of survivorship care in our rush to save time and
money, but there are many things that could actually reduce overall costs. It needs
to be a regular screening process, repeated throughout the cancer experience, from
diagnosis through lifelong followup care. Sometimes depression doesn't even
manifest until long after treatment is over. The thing we're missing in health care is
taking time to know a patient and individualize their care. Too often it's given just
lip service..

A multidisciplinary approach to treating Cancer patients must be the gold standard
of care protocol---otherwise, the unfortunate cancer patient assuredly will only
receive their medical RX chemo infusion with a &quot;see 'ya next time!&quot; attitude from
Cancer center's staff... In other words, patients usually have no aftercare for
ensuing physical symptoms and/or clinical depression. I think the problem with
Cancer care is that the goal is to eradicate the Cancer cells at all costs; even
if it leads to the patient crumbling and degrading mentally during chemo-
treatments...Life and one's ultimate Survivorship is paramount, and often times,
denial of the patient's emotions becomes part of the treatment scene..

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